1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer-based resource management systems, and, more particularly, to the job-based management of a business' financial resources through the allocation of resources to various user-defined accounts in an automated environment.
2. Background
Often individuals or businesses need and desire to achieve some measure of control over their financial affairs. Several software accounting programs have been developed to aid a business in managing its financial resources. Some of these programs include a budgeting system that allows a business to see where its money is invested or spent. Some of these programs further provide the user with the ability to perform several types of financial transactions on-line, including the ability to pay bills and to receive updated information with respect to cleared transactions from financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies.
One major problem with these existing accounting programs is the inability to provide up-to-date financial information needed to a business owner who is constantly on the go. For example, this problem represents a long-felt but unsolved need that is particularly taxing to sole proprietors who run a construction business. Often such a sole proprietor will be out in the field all day long engaging in various financial transactions, only to return home with a handful of bills and receipts representing transactions to either manually enter into a software program on a personal computer or to give to an accountant or CPA at the end of each month, quarter, or even year. Not only does this manual, after-the-fact, transaction entry take a great deal of time; without real-time access to account information, the business owner cannot make informed spending decisions while out in the field away from his or her personal computer. In other words, although existing accounting programs allow a user to establish a budget, these programs are inadequate because a user who is out in the field cannot make informed spending decisions without real-time access to his or her account information.
Besides not being able to provide real-time information, existing accounting programs also do not provide simple and intuitive budgeting systems that ensure that each spending decision is made in accordance with an established budget. For example, existing accounting programs typically allow the user to see how funds have been allocated between different financial accounts by providing a representation or statement indicating how funds were allocated during a period of time such as a week, month, quarter, or year. That is, these accounting programs compare budgeted amounts with actual spending only after the spending has occurred. Moreover, when a business' transactions involve several different financial projects (e.g., in businesses such as job shops that contract out individual jobs or projects and/or regularly make job bids or estimates), this after-the-fact budget reporting proves complicated and useless for the typical small business owner who must quickly summarize such reported information in his or her head when making on-the-spot spending decisions.